their
/ðɛə/determiner
their is spelled T-H-E-I-R: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 2,138 times per million words in written English, the 56th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “their vs there” about 18,100 times a month (Google, United States). As a determiner, their means “Belonging to, from, of, or relating to, them (plural)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in their?
| Letters | 5: T-H-E-I-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2,138 times per million words; the 56th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is their?
Their appears 2,138 times per million words in written English, the 56th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce their?
- UK /ðɛə/
- British /ðɛː/
- /ðeɹ/
Their has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-gb-their.ogg, En-us-their.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with their
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: there, they're (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: theyr.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with their?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as their from its last stressed vowel (/ɛə/, British pronunciation):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: herit.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of their
- deir
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does their mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
determiner
- 1
Belonging to, from, of, or relating to, them (plural).
they will meet tomorrow at their convenience
- 2
Belonging to someone (one person, singular), or occasionally to something.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Their in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does their come from?
From Old Norse þeira, þeirra. Replaced native Old English heora.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).